Theo Walcott reacted with surprise to Fabio Capello's decision not to include him in the England squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Ukraine and Belarus, but understands the reasoning behind the head coach's selection and is now merely intent upon regaining his starting place in Arsenal's first team.

The winger made a scoring return with Arsenal in front of the watching Capello during the 6-2 rout of Blackburn Rovers on Sunday but his 21 minutes as a substitute represent his only competitive action so far this season following a troublesome back injury picked up in a pre-season friendly against Valencia. Walcott missed England's win against Croatia, as well as the friendlies against Holland and Slovenia, and Capello is keen that he should be playing regularly at club level before being restored to the national side.

The Italian retains huge faith in the 20-year-old, whose hat-trick in Zagreb a little over a year ago ignited the national team's qualification campaign for the tournament in South Africa, and considers a fully fit Walcott to be integral to his plans. The player had anticipated being included in the squad for the games in Dnipropetrovsk and against Belarus at Wembley but, while he is disappointed not to be involved, he conceded he is still in the process of returning to match fitness. "At the moment, I am thinking about trying to get back into the Arsenal starting line-up, and I am not really thinking about the World Cup," said Walcott, who has had to watch as the likes of Aaron Lennon and Shaun Wright-Phillips have staked claims for his position on the right of England's midfield in his absence.

"I don't really look to the future – I will just try to keep playing well and see where it takes me. It is always great having competition because it brings the best out of you. England have a great squad with a great bunch of lads, and it's the same for Arsenal, with fantastic world-class players."

Walcott's pre-season preparations were badly disrupted by the back injury and his absence added to Arsène Wenger's annoyance that the winger had been selected in the England Under-21 squad for the summer's European Championship in Sweden.

The player shares his manager's frustrations at his enforced spell on the sidelines. "It's not nice being injured because you just want to be back on the pitch playing with all your mates like you do every weekend, and to get into the rhythm of things," Walcott said. "I haven't really had a pre-season, so to get back into the routine of things is great. It's fantastic to be involved again.

"I have only just come back into training so I haven't really had time to think about my level of fitness, but I maybe stay later in training now than I would do last season. It is always hard to play in an Arsène Wenger team but, as long as you train and play well, you will be involved. Hopefully in the next game I will be a bit more involved than I was against Blackburn."

Thomas Vermaelen believes Arsenal's thrashing of Blackburn sent a warning to the rest of the Premier League "We have good spirit and we want to play our own game with quick passing. To win a match 6-2 is a big message. Now we just have to continue," the centre-back said.